Question

When we refer to plasmids what can be the incompatibility groups?

1)

Plasmids that give bacteria growth advantage

2)

Bacteria that grow in the presence of other bacteria

3)

Gram positive bacteria

4)

Bacteria that avoid sunlight

5)

Slow growing bacteria

Choose one option.

Answer 1

When we refer to plasmids the incompatibility groups refer to (5) slow growing bacteria.

When a cell contains two incompatible plasmids, the resultant cell cannot distinguish between the origins, at the point of replication initiation. ( the origin of replication/replicon is  comprised of the origin of replication (ori) and all of its control elements. The ori is the place where DNA replication begins, which enables the  plasmid to reproduce itself as it must to survive within cells)

This results in the postponment of replication until after the two plasmids have been distributed to different cells to restore the pre-replication copy number. This in turn results in slowing down the bacterial growth.